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MH-1996-January-Wimberly.Pdf (6.776Mb) Methodist History, 34:2 (January 1996) CALLED TO WITNESS, CALLED TO SERVE: AFRICAN AMERICAN METHODIST WOMEN IN LIBERIAN MISSIONS, 1834-1934 ANNE STREATY WIMBERLY African American Methodist women were among the pioneers who established a missionary presence in Liberia, the oldest mission field of American Methodism. And, throughout the first century of missionary endeavors in Liberia, 1834-1934, African American women from the Methodist Episcopal (ME), African Methodist Episcopal {AME), and African Methodist Episcopal Zion (AMEZ) Churches answered the call to witness and serve there. Yet, who they were and the contributions they made have been minimally treated by researchers. The paucity of thorough records on these pioneers may have con­ tributed to limited attention given them. Few autobiographical sketches exist. In many cases, reports contain names of women with little or no description of their work. Descriptive reports were typically written by men who tended to emphasize the leadership roles of men in missionary efforts. Descriptions of exemplary service of some African American Methodist women missionaries appear in reports without the names of those who gave it. In other instances, reports disclose names of women and their contributions, mostly focused on educational and domestic­ oriented tasks. Still other material, mostly autobiographical, tells of women who embraced non-"traditional roles. These missionaries not only went beyond typical women's roles, but they also extended missions beyond the evangelizing and "civilizing" thrust with which it began. In at least one instance, these endeavors reflect what may be considered an early form of African American womanist theology. The first African American missionaries in Liberia worked to build a Christian society ahlong African American emigres, later called Americo­ Liberians, who had relocated there after being freed from slavery. The missionaries sought to improve living conditions, plant church~s, and build schools that could contribute to evangelized and "civilized" ~ Americo­ Liberian life. Their intent was to extend this work among indigenous African tribes beyond the Liberian settlements, using the settlements as a stepping stone. 1 1Joseph Conrad Wold, God's Impatience in Liberi(1 (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans P~blishing Company, 1968), 54-55. 67 68 .A1ethodist History The n1ission was ''special" because the missionaries undertook it in Africa, their ancestral home. Likewise, it was "special" because they under­ took it among emigres who shared the same background of slavery and oppression in America. They also went under the influence of prevailing views in America about Africa as a "dark" and un-Christian continent in need of "civilizing. ''2 The "special" mission actually emerged out of a larger "special" socio­ political circumstance within America that brought Liberia into being. The settlement of Liberia, "place of freedom," evolved from efforts of the American Colonization Society (ACS), formed in 1816 primarily by promi­ nent Anglo-Americans, including some clergymen and slaveholders. Their purpose was to 8end freed slaves to Africa based on conditions that precluded their serving useful lives in America. They also told slaveholders that the removal of freed slaves would secure the institution of slavery. 3 A group of 86 African American pro-emigrationists, joined an ACS representative and the two government officials and set sail for Liberia from New York on the ship Elizabeth on January 31, 1821. More than half of the 1821 emigrant travelers were won1en and children. The few survivors ofthe long harsh journey founded the colony of Liberia on the west coast of Africa on Janaury 7, 1822 after the purchase of land 140 miles long and 40 miles wide from a willing chief. They established a city, situated on Providence Island at the south of the Mesurado River, and named it Monrovia after President Monroe.4 Some historians insist that the first settlers were themselves the first missionaries who felt called to carry Christianity to Africa, and to abolish slavery at its source. Other historians contend that the government saw the settlers as workers required to build a government station. However, history shows that Reverend Daniel Coker, a school teacher and minister of the AME Church from Baltimore, Maryland, went to Africa on the Elizabeth with a clear missionary purpose. 5 By the work he accomplished through the Methodist Society he formed, he paved the way for future African American Methodist missionaries. 2Sylvia M . Jacobs, "The Impact of Black American Missionaries in Africa," 219-225 in Black Americans and the Missionary Movement in Africa, ed. Sylvia M. Jacobs (\Vestport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1982), 219. 3For a more thorough presentation of the origin and work of the American Colonization Society, see: Archibald Alexander, A History ofColonization on the JVestern Coast ofAfrica (Philadelphia: William S. Martien, 1846). 4Tom W. Shick, "Rhetoric and Reality: Colonization and Afro-American Missionaries in Early Nineteenth Century Liberia," 45-62 in Black Americans and the Afissionary A,fove­ ment in Africa, ed. Sylvia M. Jacobs (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1982), 48; and \Vold, God's Impatience in Liberia, 19. 5 The AA1£ Church Review, Vol. 29, No. I, July 1912, 29; and Herbert Aptheker, ed., A Documentary History of the Negro People in the United States 1: From Colonial Times Through the Civil War (New York: The Citadel Press, 1951), 68. Called to Witness, Called to Serve 69 The environment of the new colony was neither comfortable nor en­ tirely safe. The work 'included building places of habitation, cultivating the land for food, and dealing with tropical fevers. Attempts to make con­ tact with indigenous tribes were also fraught with difficulty because the tribes did not welcome the Americo-Liberiansand missionaries with open arms. Under such conditions, men rather than women were the more likely missionary candidates. Yet, many women made significant contributions in Liberia, including single women and wives of male clergy missionaries. It is possible that emigrant women settlers joined Coker's African Methodist Society and, ll;nder its auspices, carried out missionary roles, but no records of this activity exist. However, there is -evidence of mis­ sionary endeavc1rs of African American Methodist women in Liberia begin­ ning a little more than a decade after Daniel Coker's arrival there. Documents show that in 1834, Eunice Sharp, an African American from the ME Church, sailed for s-ervice in Liberia along ~ith Francis Burns, a Black minister. Although the records are not clear on what she did or how long she served, it is likely that Miss Sharp became associated in some way with the Monrovia Academy where Burns was appointed as principal. 6 Lavinia Johnson, another African American woman, went as a missionary to Liberia in 1845. She was one of three missionaries, in­ cluding an Anglo-American woman and an African American male, whom the ME Church Missionary Society sent. 7 Nothing appears in the records about the nature and length of her service. In 1836, two years after Eunice Sharp's arrival, the ME Church established the Liberian Missionary Conference. In 1847, two years after Lavinia Johnson's arrival, the ratification of a constitution brought about the independent Republic of Liberia, and the election of the first president in the early 1850s. Approval of the evangelizing role of the missionaries is contained in the words of the Republic's Declaration of Independence, "From us, feeble as we are, the light of Christianity has gone forth."8 6See: M. C. B. Mason, "The Methodist Episcopal Church and the Evangelization of Africa," Africa and the American Negro: Addresses and Proceedings of the Congress on Africa, ed. J. W. E. Bowen (Atlanta: Stewart Missionary Foundation for Africa of Gammon Theological Seminary, December 13-15, 1895), 144; and GrantS. Shockley, "The Methodist Episcopal Chur~h: Promise and Peril, 1784-1939," 39-97 in Heritage and Hope: TheAf!kanAmerican Presence in UnitedMethodism, ed. GrantS. Shockley (Nashville: AbingdonPress, 1991), 66. 7Some confusion exists about the time of Lavinia Johnson's arrival in Liberia. Most likely, she arrived in 1845. She went back to the U.S. in 1846 to recuperate from an illness and returned to Liberia in 1847. See: Wade Crawford Barclay, History of Methodist Missions, Part Two: The Methodist Episcopal Church, 1845-1939, Volume III: Widening Horizons 1845-95 (New York: The Board of Missions of the Methodist Church, 1957), 872n; To A Higher Glory: The Growth and Development of Black Women Organized for Mission in the Methodist Church 1940-1968. The Task Group on the History of the Central Jurisdic­ tion Women's Organization, Women's Division of the Board of Global Ministries, The United Methodist Church, 1980), 36. 8Harry H. Johnston, Liberia (London: Hutchinson and Company, 1906), 200. 70 - Methodist History From the late 1850s until 1900, African Americans may have con­ stituted the greatest number of the mission force. 9 But, extant documents do not show the missionary service of another African American Methodist woman until1876 when Anna Cartwright came to Liberia with her clergy husband, the Reverend Andrew Cartwright, from Elizabeth City, North Carolina. From 1878 until 1903, Anna Cartwright carried out a mission of education through supervision of a Day School at Brewerville, sixty miles in the interior of Liberia. Although the Cartwrights went to Liberia under ACS support, their service actually marked the beginning of the Liberian missions initiative of the AMEZ Church. 10 In 1884 the General Conference of the ME Church elected Reverend William Taylor as missionary Bishop of Africa. Bishop Taylor reportedly recrv.ited 88 missionaries, most of them women, to serve and plant mis­ sion stations on the Kru Coast and the Cavalla River. 11 However, it is difficult to confirm their names and ethnicity. It is known that around 1884, Sarah Simpson, an African American teacher, went to Liberia. 12 Amanda Berry Smith is among the most celebrated African American Methodist women missionaries who ·served in Africa.
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